Quick-freezer

ABSTRACT

A drum for holding articles to be quick-frozen or otherwise treated is mounted to rotate about a horizontal axis in the cylindrical cavity of a refrigerated or treatment casing which closely embraces the drum. The drum is of skeletal construction and holds trough-shaped receptacles which can be loaded into and removed from the drum through an access opening in the upper portion of the casing closed by a divided cover. The freezing chamber is nearly full of liquid refrigerant, and the convergent sides of the receptacles are perforate or reticulated for free flow of refrigerant through the receptacles as the drum is rotated slowly.

[ Mar. 19, 1974 2,938,450 5/1960 Carpenter et 99/427 3 QUICK-FREEZER ,498,21O 3/197Q OToole..........

Inventor: John A. Huey, 830-84th Ave. NE,

Bellevue, Wash. 98004 Apr. 27, 1971 Primary Examiner-Meyer Perlin [22] Filed:

[211 App No 137 768 Assistant Examiner-Ronald C. Capossela [51] Int.

Field of Search erwise treated is mounted to rotate about a horizontal 58; 100/427, 3; axis in the cylindrical cavity of a refrigerated or treat- 3 1 9; 165/169 ment casing which closely embraces the drum. The

drum is of skeletal construction and holds trough- [56] Referen s Cited shaped receptacles which can be loaded into and re- UNITED STATES PATENTS moved from the drum through an access opening in 62/346 the upper portion of the casing closed by a divided 62331 X cover. The freezing chamber is nearly full of liquid re- 62/381 X Knowles".....1......... ....l......t...

m 5 mm mm e DP 653 556 999 111 6 5 277 208 v v v 928 428 223 frigerant, and the convergent sides of the receptacles are perforate or reticulated for free flow of refrigerant 2.942 429 6/1960 Van Dolah et a1. 2.740269 4/1956 through the receptacles as the drum is rotated slowly.

. 62/375 Marasco 1.747.080 2/1930 Reeh......l....... 3,372,636 3/1968 99/427 6 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PAIENTED AR l 9 I974 lNVE/W'Ol? JOHN ,4. HUEV ATTOPNE V QUICK-FREEZER While the treating apparatus of the present invention is particularly useful as a quick-freezer, it is an object to provide a construction which can be used for a variety of types of treatment in addition to quick-freezing comestibles, such as for tumbling articles in a chemical or washing bath or tumbling articles during hot air drying or gaseous fumigation.

A principal object of the present invention is to provide article-treating apparatus which is very compact for its capacity and which is of a shape to enable articles to be placed in the apparatus and removed from it quickly and easily.

A further object is to provide such article-treating apparatus which can be loaded and unloaded with minimum interruption to a treatment cycle and particularly apparatus which can be loaded and unloaded in sections.

Another object is to provide freezing apparatus which will afford an efficient heat exchange operation by providing good circulation of refrigerant in direct contact with the articles to be frozen.

It is also an object to provide such freezing apparatus which can be operated with a minimum quantity of refrigerant as compared to the volume of articles being frozen.

An additional object is to provide article-treating apparatus which will afford quick and easy access to the treating chamber for inspection at any time of the articles being treated.

A further object is to provide such article-treating apparatus which is of simple construction so that it can be produced economically and will require a minimum of maintenance. Such apparatus can be manufactured in different sizes according to particular requirements and can be made of portable character.

FIG. 1 is a top perspective of treatment apparatus according to the present invention with parts broken away and showing a receptacle in exploded relationship to the treating apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a transverse section through the treating apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a detail transverse section of a portion of the treating apparatus.

FIG. 4 isa fragmentary detail section through a portion of the apparatus taken on line 4-4 of FIG. 2.

The treating apparatus includes a casing 1 having a treating cavity in which a rotative drum 2 is mounted. Such casing includes an inner sheet shell 3 of cylindrically arcuate shape which fits closely around the drum. The ends of such shell are closed by cylindrical casing ends 4. The drum is supported for rotation about the axis of the cylindrical casing shell by shafting 5. Such ends of the radial members 7. Such longitudinal members have ribs 10 located closely adjacent to the inner shell 3 of the casing. If the apparatus is used for quickfreezing such ribs will scrape from the freezing cavity wall any excess ice which may form on it.

Articles to be treated, such as comestibles to be quick-frozen, for example, are carried by the drum. In order to expose the articles to be treated most effectively to treating fluid in the cavity of the casing, whether that treating fluid be gaseous, liquid or slush, the drum is rotated during treatment by a motor 11 which drives the drum through a chain-and-sprocket drive 12. The'speed at which the drum is rotated will depend upon the size of the apparatus and the type of treatment to which the articles carried by the drum are being subjected.

If the treating apparatus is being used for heatexchange purposes, the casing 1 can include an intermediate shell 13 shown in FIG. 3 as being spaced outwardly slightly from the inner shell 3 to provide a narrow annular chamber 14 to which heat-exchange medium can be supplied. If the apparatus is being used as a quick-freezer, the heat exchange medium in chamber 14 can be primary refrigerant such as freon gas which has been supplied to the chamber through an expansion valve. The outer side of such heat-exchange medium chamber is shielded by insulation 15 enclosed by the outer shell 16 of the casing.

In order to be able to load articles to be treated into the drum and to remove such articles from the drum quickly and conveniently, the drum iscompartmented. The drum is of polygon cross-sectional shape, and a convenient construction is to provide removable receptacles l7 coresponding in number to'the number of sides of the drum polygon. The drum is shown in the drawings as being of hexagon cross section. Each receptacle is of trough shape as shown at the upper portion of FIG. 1. To make most effective use of the capacity of the drum the troughs are of substantially sector cross section so that their sides form partitions substantially radiating from the horizontal rotative axis of the drum and disposed in planes parallel to such axis. The ends 18 of the receptacle taper inwardly and their convergent edges and the receptacle sides 19 joining such edges extend substantially radially.

In order to be able to expose the articles to be treated directly to the fluid-treating medium in the casing cavity the relatively convergent sides 19 of each trough are apertured. Multiple apertures can beprovided by making the trough sides either of reticulated material such as screening, for example hardware cloth, or lattice material such as expanded metal, or the sides can be perforated such as being of punched sheet metal. Such material will enable the treating fluid to flow freely through the trough receptacle sides as the drum is rotated.

5 are received in bearings 6 mounted in the casing ends While it would be feasible to compartment the drum 2 by fixed apertured radial partitions to provide stationary receptacles of sector cross section, the receptacles can be loaded and unloaded much more conveniently if they are removable from the skeletal drum. All of the trough-shaped receptacles 17 of the present apparatus are removable from the drum, the receptacle shown at the top of FIG. 1 in exploded relationship to the drum being representative. Each receptacle end 18 has a hole 20 adjacent to its free edge in which a hoisting hook can be engaged to lift the receptacle out of the drum.

As shown in FIG. 2, such hole is located outwardly of the chordal tie of the corresponding drum sector and midway between the opposite sides of the receptacle.

Preferably the free edges of the receptacle ends 18 are of convex circular arcuate shape concentric with the axis of rotation of the drum so as to be disposed close to the casing inner shell 3 when the receptacle is inserted into the drum. Contact of edge flanges on the free edges of the receptacle ends with such casing inner shell would prevent the receptacles from being dislodged from the drum. In order to prevent scraping contact of the receptacles with the casing, however, it is preferred to provide latch means to hold the receptacles in predetermined positions in the drum.

Spaced slots 21 in the ends of the receptacle, shown best in FIG. 1 and FIG. 4, are engaged by spring latch clips 22 mounted on the chordal ties 8 which snap into the receptacle slots as the receptacles move into their fully inserted positions in the drum. It is preferred that such latches be releasable by wedging action of the slots 21 on the clips 22 as force is exerted on such clips by hoisting of the receptacle from the drum. In other words, such latches are of the detent type which would not prevent a receptacle from being pulled from the drum, but would prevent a receptacle from dropping away from its seated position in the drum when the drum is turned to a position in which the receptacle is inverted.

' Inward movement of the receptacle into the drum can be limited either by engagement of the latch slots 21 with the latch clips 22 or by engagement of flanges 23 extending along the free edges of the receptacle sides 19 with the longitudinal members 9 of the drum, as shown best in FIG. 3. 1

Access to the treating cavity within the casing is afforded through an access opening 24 in its top, which preferably is of a size only sufficient to provide reasonable clearance for movement of a receptacle 17 through such opening. The opening can be closed by a cover which preferably is divided into a supporting section 25 having one edge mounted on a margin of the casing opening 24 by a hinge 26 and a supported cover section 27 connected to the section 25 by a hinge 28. When both cover sections are opened, as shown in full lines in FIG. 1 and in dot-dash lines in FIG. 2, a receptacle 17 can be moved through the opening 24. The interior of the treating chamber can be inspected from end to end by simply swinging the supported cover section 27 upwardly about the axis of its hinge 28, as shown in full lines in FIG. 2.

A receptacle 17 can be loaded with articles to be treated when it is removed from the drum 2 as shown in the upper portion of FIG. 1. The elongated shape of the receptacle is particularly advantageous for holding such articles as fish if the apparatus is used as a quickfreezer. When a receptacle has been loaded rotation of the drum 2 can be stopped, the cover 25, 27 of the casing opened fully and a receptacle l7 lifted out of the drum. The space occupied by the receptacle thus removed can then be filled by lowering into the drum the loaded receptacle mentioned above.

Various receptacles can thus be replaced periodically according to a predetermined schedule, or all of the receptacles can be removed from the drum and replaced successively during one interruption of the treatment operation. In fact, with a drum having six sector divisions as shown in FIG. 2, the six receptacles can be removed and dumped one after the other, and by the time that the sixth receptacle has been removed and dumped the first receptacle can have been refilled ready for replacing in the drum. The remaining receptacles can then be inserted into the drum pockets one after the other so as to complete the unloading and reloading operation of the drum receptacles in minimum time.

When the apparatus is used as a quick-freezer, the drum 2 can be rotated slowly, such as one or two revolutions per minute. Such movement will cause the receptacles and the articles within them to be moved slowly orbitally about the rotative axis of the drum through a body of liquid secondary refrigerant which almost fills the freezing cavity so that the shaft 6 is well below the surface of the liquid as shown in FIG. 2. Such movement both stirs the refrigerant to maintain its temperature uniform throughout the casing treatment cavity and effects continual relative tumbling movement of the articles received loosely in the receptacles and the refrigerant to expedite freezing of such articles. The secondary refrigerant can be an aqueous glycerol, glycol, sugar or salt solution. The temperature of such solution can be sufficiently low so that the freezing medium is actually a slush. The ribs 10 will scrape excessive ice accumulation from the cylindrical wall of the freezing cavity to prevent such accumulation from stalling rotation of the drum.

I claim:

Treating apparatus including a casing having therein a treating cavity, and treating liquid in such treating cavity, the improvement comprising a drum for containing articles to be treated, substantially enclosed in the treating cavity, mounted for rotation about a substantially horizontal axis below the level of liquid in the treating cavity and said drum including a skeletal structure and a plurality of receptacles removably received in the drum, each receptacle and constituting an article-confining compartment for limiting movement circumferentially of said drum of articles contained loosely in said receptacles and for effecting orbital movement of such articles around the axis of said drum as said drum rotates, and drive means for rotating said drum to submerge such articles in the treating liquid at least throughout their movement thrg igh the lower half of their orbit for 5. The apparatus defined in claim 1, in which the easing has an access opening in its upper side, and a cover for said access opening composed of a plurality of sections, one of which sections can be opened independently of the remainder of the cover, and which cover can also be opened in its entirety.

6L Treating apparatus including a casing having therein a treating cavity and treating liquid in such treating cavity, the improvement comprising a drum for containing articles to be treated, substantially enclosed in the treating cavity, mounted for rotation about a substantially horizontal axis below the level of liquid in the treating cavity and said drum having partition means for forming compartments for limiting movement circumferentially of said drum of articles contained drum rotates, the periphery of said drum being open and the casing having an inner wall cylindrically arcuateabout a sfibstantially horizontal a iis and closely encircling the major portion of the drum circumference for confining articles substantially within said drum as it is rotated, and drive means for rotating said drum to submerge such articles in the treating liquid at least throughout their movement through the lower halt of their orbit for treating all of the articles in said drum loosely in said drum and for effecting orbital movement 10 uniformly by the treating liquid.

of such articles around the axis of said drum as said I mg I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE I 5 CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION r I i Column 4, line 32, cancel the comma after "cavity"; line 39,

Patent No. 3,797 ,272 Dated March 19, 1974 Inventor(s) John A. Huey It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

cancel "and"; line 57, cancel "trough-shaped'f.

Column 6, 1ine8, cancel "halt" and insert ha1f.

Signed end sealed this l3th day ofAugnst 197 p.

(SEAL) Attest:

McCOY M. GIBSON, JR. 0. MARSHALL DANN Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents 

1. Treating apparatus including a casing having therein a treating cavity, and treating liquid in such treating cavity, the improvement comprising a drum for containing articles to be treated, substantially enclosed in the treating cavity, mounted for rotation about a substantially horizontal axis below the level of liquid in the treating cavity and said drum including a skeletal structure and a plurality of receptacles removably received in the drum, each receptacle constituting an articleconfining compartment for limiting movement circumferentially of said drum of articles contained loosely in said receptacles and for effecting orbital movement of such articles around the axis of said drum as said drum rotates, and drive means for rotating said drum to submerge such articles in the treating liquid at least throughout their movement through the lower half of their orbit for treating all of the articles in said drum receptacles uniformly by the treating liquid.
 2. The apparatus defined in claim 1, in which each receptacle is of elongated trough shape having a horizontal length greater than its width.
 3. The apparatus defined in claim 1, in which the drum includes end spiders and circumferentially spaced horizontal members connecting said spiders, each trough-shaped receptacle fitting between adjacent horizontal members of the drum.
 4. The apparatus defined in claim 1, and latch clips carried by the drum and engageable with the receptacles for retaining them in the drum.
 5. The apparatus defined in claim 1, in which the casing has an access opening in its upper side, and a cover for said access opening composed of a plurality of sections, one of which sections can be opened independently of the remainder of the cover, and which cover can also be opened in its entirety.
 6. Treating apparatus including a casing having therein a treating cavity, and treating liquid in such treating cavity, the improvement comprising a drum for containing articles to be treated, substantially enclosed in the treating cavity, mounted for rotation about a substantially horizontal axis below the level of liquid in the treating cavity and said drum having partition means for forming compartments for limiting movement circumferentially of said drum of articles contained loosely in said drum and for effecting orbital movement of such articles around the axis of said drum as said drum rotates, the periphery of said drum being open and the casing having an inner wall cylindrically arcuate about a substantially horizontal axis and closely encircling the major portion of the drum circumference for confining articles substantially within said drum as it is rotated, and drive means for rotating said drum to submerge such articles in the treating liquid at least throughout their movement through the lower half of their orbit for treating all of the aRticles in said drum uniformly by the treating liquid. 